After the 1994 Major League Baseball strike, I became a huge fan of what’s often called outsider baseball. That term refers to the parts of the game that lived outside the mainstream—segregated leagues, barnstorming teams, industrial leagues, and countless regional clubs and players who never made it into the dominant Major League Baseball narrative. It’s a reminder that baseball’s story has never been told in full.

When it came to the women’s side of the game, I had only ever heard of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League (AAGPBL). The discovery of a rival league, the National Girls Baseball League (NGBL), showed me that women’s baseball and softball had their own outsider history waiting to be uncovered.

Pretty quickly after I began researching, I realized that multiple women’s softball and baseball leagues had emerged during the World War II era. One of these was the American Girls Softball League (AGSL) / American Girls Baseball Conference (AGBC) / Eastern States Girls Baseball League (ESGBL), which operated in the New York metropolitan area. What began as a regional amateur league grew into a major force in the Northeast—so much so that in 1952 it landed a national television deal with ABC. Teams like the Arthur Murray Girls, the Freeport Forest Jewelers, and the Bronx Alpines were suddenly broadcast nationwide.

Although my main focus has always been the National Girls Baseball League, I also love highlighting these other organizations. I believe the AAGPBL shouldn’t be the only story dominating the conversation in women’s baseball history—and neither should the NGBL in women’s softball history. That’s why you’ll see me posting more content about the American Girls Softball League and other forgotten leagues across the United States that deserve recognition.